Product Description

Wilford Woodruff was different from his predecessors and successors in one particular way — he left an incredibly detailed handwritten record that spanned more than sixty years, of nearly everything he did and experienced. Reflecting on his personal effort to keep a regular journal, he remarked:

When the Prophet Joseph organized the Quorum of the Twelve, he counseled them to keep a history of their lives. I made a record from the first sermon I heard, and from that day until now I have kept a daily journal. Whenever I heard Joseph Smith preach, teach, or prophesy, I always felt it my duty to write it. I would write the history of that Church and leave on record the works and teachings of the prophets, of the apostles and elders. I have recorded nearly all the sermons and teachings that I ever heard from the Prophet Joseph, I have in my journal many of the sermons of President Brigham Young, and such men as Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt and others.

Through his skillful, inspired leadership and direction, he helped bring about accommodation and change, leading the Church into the social, cultural, and religious mainstream of American society. Thomas G. Alexander, one of Woodruff's biographers, observed:

He is arguably the third most important figure in all of LDS church history after Joseph Smith, who began Mormonism, and Brigham Young, who led the Saints to Utah and supervised the early colonization of the intermountain west. . .

This unique combination of temporal shrewdness and spiritual insight dwelled in a mind and body absolutely committed to Mormonism and unquestioningly loyal to his colleagues and to the Saints.

This book is a selection of presentations from the annual BYU Church History Symposium hosted by BYU Religious Education to honor Wilford Woodruff and to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of his birth.

About the Authors

Susan Easton Black is an emeritus professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University, a past associate dean of General Education and Honors, and director of Church history in the Religious Studies Center. Dr. Black has been the recipient of numerous academic awards including the Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Lecturer Award - the highest award given a professor at BYU. She has recently returned from serving a mission with her husband for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.